Illustration courtesy Britt Irick
This is the third of three questions we asked for August’s “Three” series. Check out what several local creatives had to say, then share your own insight via the comments below!
We want to know: How do you fight the economic downturn (personally or professionally)?
Andrew Cohen abandoned a computer science degree program at George Mason University to pursue a graphic design degree, instead. It was a transition that happened naturally — from his playing “Oregon Trail” on an Apple II GS using disks that needed to be flipped halfway through the game to learning photography from his mom and sister to creating websites in Dreamweaver and Photoshop.
Now, the 24-year-old Old Town resident and suburban-Richmond native spends his time designing for the web; that is, when he’s not playing soccer, mountain biking, running, snowboarding, reading, hoarding music, drawing, photographing, catching up with his sister (who’s studying in Buenos Aires), or complementing his rewarding job at Brightline Interactive with freelance design — an endeavor he’s thought about doing full-time.
Illustration courtesy Britt Irick
This is the second of three questions we asked for August’s “Three” series. Check out what several local creatives had to say, then share your own insight via the comments below!
We want to know: What advice would you give creatives who are considering going full-time freelance?
When designer David DeSandro traded Harrisonburg for Arlington four years ago after earning a degree in communication studies, he didn’t know he was about to embark on what had become a continuing path of artistic exploration. From childhood to adolescence to college, he’d transitioned from drawing and sketching to songwriting and playing guitar to making music visualizations, the latter of which were “a terrific amalgamation of visual design and scripting.”
Illustration courtesy Britt Irick
The editorial staff of FullBleed this month kicked-off a new series called “Three” by asking ADCMW members three questions that typically confront us as creatives. The answers we receive are then compiled and published individually over consecutive weeks. This is the first of three questions we asked for August. Check out what several local creatives had to say, then share your own insight via the comments below!
We want to know: how do you combat the slippery slope of endless design “tweaks” and feedback?
Don’t throw anything away. Recycle it to Ivan Chermayeff!
The catalog, Ivan Chermayeff Collages 1982-1995, truly shows off his skill as an artist.
Mr. C started his graphic design career back in the late 1950’s along with Tom Geismar. They are responsible for many famous logos: Mobil, Chase Manhattan Bank, Xerox (why, oh why, did Xerox change its logo?), Crane & Co., and PBS, to name a few.
To quote from David Levy, then president and director of the Corcoran, “Over the past two decades, Ivan Chermayeff and I have worked together on many projects. His intellectual depth, his sheer delight in the creative process, and the force of his talent have always made our collaborations an adventure of learning and discovery. As this exhibition eloquently demonstrates, Chermayeff is a unique star in America’s creative constellation.”
This catalog might still be available at the Corcoran gift shop, in downtown DC.
Let’s face it; finding new work can be a job unto itself. Whether you are a freelancer looking to land the next project or a designer looking to climb aboard (or up) the agency train, the experience and stress can age you prematurely. That, of course, goes two-fold in this economic turbine we currently find ourselves spinning around in.
Designers are notoriously bad self-promoters. We spend a majority of our time helping our clients creatively achieve new heights in their businesses, but personally we fall flat on our faces when it comes to getting our names to stand out amongst the crowd. And let’s not kid ourselves — it’s a big crowd.
The world of design is a big place, and competition can be fierce. The graphic design field might not be a full-contact sport but it can definitely feel like a cage match from time-to-time. Hey, that’s all part of the charm, right? But, before you give us your piercing warrior battle cry, let’s step back a sec and see if we can’t make life a littler easier for everyone.
Channeling Your Inner Art Student (A.K.A. The Fear)
Last December, I went down to my alma mater to review the upcoming graduating seniors’ portfolios. The students looked just like I remember feeling when I was in their shoes: excited and scared. But they were not scared of me, or even graduating for that matter. They were scared of the unknown. What would life be life after college? What if they got out and discovered that post-college life sucked? What if they couldn’t get a job? Who was going to help them if they stumbled along the way? What the hell am I doing here anyway? Can we still throw keggers after we graduate?
All great questions, all questions that I asked myself as I prepared to make the leap from design student to designer-for-hire. Half those questions I still occasionally ask myself, six years later.
I was expected to give a short talk on the second day of the portfolio review. The week before, I had written a script of talking points that I was going to cover. Inspirational things. Things about my personal design career saga. I was going to use big words full of sunshine and rainbows. Words that I hoped would act as a big warm “everything is going to be ok” hug. But after the first day, I threw away those notes. I realized that a recap of my design journey and throwing around a bunch of high fives over the beginning of theirs just wouldn’t cut it. Instead, I decided to write a list that focused on two things: the easiest way to get a portfolio online, and the best job sites that cater to designers.
Your Legs Can’t Carry You Everywhere
You can schlep your portfolio all over town, state, timezone … and you should. Be relentless in your search; leave no creative director unturned. But, the game’s changed. Whether you are a veteran designer who has been in the trenches for decades or a squeaky clean recruit right out of school, if you don’t have your portfolio online, then you don’t have a portfolio at all. Repeat: Not showing any work online means you ain’t got no work to show. Ok, that’s a little harsh and probably a bit polarizing, but it’s rapidly becoming the truth in a world where the internet has become a catalyst to so much change in our lives. Why would the way we get work be any different?
We Don’t All Need to be Web Designers to Be Designers Online
Designers come in all sorts of different flavors. We all have varied skill sets, styles, and ideas that make us unique. I don’t expect people to respond to this article by becoming web designers overnight, nor am I saying that you EVER have to become a web designer. Quite the opposite, really. Focusing on your strengths and design style while looking for work doesn’t leave much room for learning how to design for the web. Whether your focus is print, web, industrial, packaging, branding, or any other design-oriented field, these resources may open opportunities for you.
This is Part II of a series of solutions to pro-bono design by the Washington, D.C. design community.
In this second installment, we take a look at an interesting new angle on doing design for the greater good, then explore a resource that connects designers and non-profits in need.
In 2006, the Art Directors Club (ADC) hosted Designism, an event spear-headed by ADC Vice President Brian Collins, and dubbed by the ADC to be “a debate over advertising and design as instruments for social and political change.” Kurt Andersen, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand, George Lois, and James Victore comprised an all-star panel — moderated by Steven Heller — that “debated” the role design and graphic designers play in solving the problems of the world. The talk kicked off a larger discussion in the design community.
Fast-forward to the Designism 2.0 and 3.0 events in 2007 and 2008, respectively. What started as a debate and call-to-arms has given birth to actual examples of design work for a number of social and political causes.
Another invaluable piece that came from the Designism dialogue was designismconnects, a web site that partners idealist.org and the ADC. It serves as a forum to connect meaningful social causes with designers by allowing non-profits to post their project needs and designers to post samples of their work.
In a few short years, Designism has evolved into more than just a venue for designers to show-off their meaningful work to their peers and discuss the ills of the world; it has provided an example of “how you can make something that has a larger impact,” as Collins said.
This idea of making a larger impact is what Collins wants the design community to really glean from Designism and all of the discussion surrounding it.
“How can you take these values into your daily dialogue with clients and still pay the rent?” Collins said, adding that Designism provides an opportunity for designers to compare their own work “against people who are really doing it.”
So, who is really doing it? The answer to this question can be debated and discussed, but ultimately the answer lies in how you want your work to impact your local community and society on a whole. Collins believes that designers can — and should — use their own careers for change; that designers should have a seat at the table when it comes to socially responsible design. Instead of dividing your time between work that pays the bills and the work that you really believe in, try incorporating a social conscious into your day-to-day responsibilities so you can have the opportunity to do both socially and financially rewarding work.
In today’s world, companies are no longer solely judged on their “bottom line.” They are also being judged by “the larger contribution they are making,” said Collins. This larger contribution can be measured by the triple bottom line, a widely used methodology coined by TOMS Shoes. TOMS gives a pair of shoes to a child in need, thereby using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good.
Regardless of what side of the discussion you fall on regarding designers as agents of social and political change, our community has always been at the forefront of shaping trends and decisions, and my hope is that we can all bring a little more good to the world through our chosen professions.
Other Good Resources
In our next installment on pro-bono design, we are looking to highlight local resources for connecting designers with pro-bono opportunities. If you have a unique solution to pro-bono design that you would like to share with the community, send your ideas to publications@adcmw.org or leave us a comment below. We love to hear what the community thinks.
Do you know fine typography when you see it? Poetry magazine is filled with wonderful words and wonderful typography. It’s designed by Winterhouse Studio in Connecticut.
A six-issue yearly subscription at $35.00 is a steal. This 5 3/4 x 9 publication is edited and designed with loving care. Highgrade book paper, perfect binding, an interior printed in black ink, and a deceptively simple four-color cover. The cover art is always an illustration, sometimes playing with the title.
ADCMW has a few designers who pay attention to typography in their work; Stephen Kraft, Antonio Alcala, and Robert Wiser come to mind, as well as the late and sadly missed Tom Suzuki.
Trust me, people who read can spot visual design errors from a mile away. So, if you are in doubt about how your typography looks, buy a copy of Poetry, which is published by Poetry Foundation, PO Box 575, Mount Morris, IL 61054.
$3.75 per copy at better bookstores.
Embossed on the cover board of Beware Wet Paint by Alan Fletcher is the following paragraph:
“A marketing manager, resentful of being told by the Chairman that he had to see me, made his position absolutely clear. ‘I know nothing about design,’ he said; ‘furthermore I don’t want anything to do with it.’ He was kitted out in a chalk-stripe brown suit, a distressed-patterned tie, wore glasses the color of stewed glue, sat behind a tacky reproduction antique desk, and worked in a bureaucrat’s office to match. I believed him…and left!”
This anecdote will give you an idea of what famous graphic designers go through with some clients. Just like us! And from the Preface:
“Marcel Duchamp used the phrase ‘Beware Wet Paint’ to remind us that it takes time to judge the worth of work. This book looks at thirty-five years of Fletcher’s work: some of the most recent may not yet be dry.”
Fletcher, along with Bob Gill and Colin Forbes, started Pentagram in Britain in 1965. He is as close to being a graphic design god as you can get. This man was a true thinker and artist. He died on September 21, 2006, at 74.
To quote Steven Heller, “For Mr. Fletcher, nothing was as important as the idea.”
Beware Wet Paint is published by Phaidon.
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